For all the violence and grief of The Lovely Bones, Peter Jackson believes the movie adaptation need not be a downer. In fact, he says, the film version of Alice Sebold's best-selling novel about teenager Susie Salmon, who watches from heaven as her family collapses after her murder, is downright uplifting.

Peter Jackson has made his name with big-budget, special-effects-heavy films such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong. He tackles a more personal story with the adaption of the book The Lovely Bones. The director discussed the film, out Dec. 11, via e-mail with USA TODAY: